Despite secrecy, area stores ready for launch of long-awaited iPhone

Thursday

Jun 28, 2007 at 12:20 AMJun 28, 2007 at 1:17 AM

This Friday's release of Apple's iPhone has been shrouded in secrecy. Even personnel at area AT&T stores — who've spent this week preparing for the launch — are still in the dark on what exactly the debut of the iPhone will entail.

SARA JEROME

This Friday's release of Apple's iPhone has been shrouded in secrecy.

Even personnel at area AT&T stores — who've spent this week preparing for the launch — are still in the dark on what exactly the debut of the iPhone will entail.

Representatives from Apple made the rounds this week to local AT&T stores to teach sales representatives how to assist customers with the picture-taking, music-playing, YouTube-casting, and e-mail-reading cell phones, which go on sale at AT&T stores at 6 p.m. this Friday.

And though sales officials will be expected to help customers with the products during the launch, they won't get their hands on the iPhone a second before its official release.

"I won't touch one until I sell one, but even then I might not get to touch it," said Andrew Peters, a retail sales consultant at an AT&T store in Wind Gap. "Maybe if we have in-store demos."

Strict regulations will guide the launch. AT&T stores will close at 4:30 p.m. on Friday so management can prepare to reopen at 6 p.m., when the product is set to go on sale. Shipments of the cell phones won't arrive at stores until Friday.

Customers will be restricted to one phone per person and won't be allowed to open the box containing the phone inside the stores. The phone will only be sold in AT&T stores, Apple stores, and through the Apple web site.

AT&T representatives said they foresee hoards of tech-savvy customers pouring into stores as soon as the product goes on sale at 6 p.m.

"We expect people to be camping out," Peters said. "The phone has been talked about—lots of people (have been) on the (online) forums—for a year."

AT&T stores anticipate so much traffic that phone calls to retailers redirect to a recorded message instructing customers that "if you plan on visiting our store for reasons other than the iPhone, we suggest coming in prior to the iPhone launch."

"It's on the same scale as when the PlayStation or the XBox 360 came out, although they're saying this is the most anticipated (release) in a long time," Peters said.

Even retailers barely know what to expect on Friday. As late as Wednesday, AT&T representatives remained in the dark on details about the release, including how many phones would be available in stores and when the price of the phone would be reduced.

Representatives at some stores were even instructed not to answer any questions about the iPhone other than its release date.

Apple's aggressive but carefully controlled iPhone advertising campaign helped build hype around the phone. Television commercials revealed snippets about the phone's high-tech capabilities—touted as "revolutionary" — but kept other particulars, like the cost of the phone, under wraps.

Finding that information required customers do some searching — it could be tracked down on the Apple's web site, but even there, the phone's price tag of $499 and up is seldom stated.